The American has won Olympic medals and World Cups. But she was also committed to making her sport better for her colleagues

The moment that may best encapsulate Alex Morgan’s time as a player happened back in March. You could hardly be blamed for missing it, though. As was often the case in a long career that Morgan abruptly announced will end this weekend , much of her impact came away from the play itself.

This moment started with the speed that was Morgan’s calling card as a youngster. Just 10 minutes into the USWNT’s quarter-final matchup against Colombia in the W Gold Cup, Morgan darted to pressure a loose Colombian backpass, nicked the ball to her teammate Lindsey Horan, and then continued her trajectory as Horan played a through ball into the box. Here, Morgan’s veteran nous took over; she positioned her body perfectly between herself and the pursuing defender, drawing a clear foul that set up a penalty kick to break the 0-0 scoreline.

• Baltimore Ravens 20-27 Kansas City Chiefs
• Xavier Worthy scores two touchdowns on NFL debut

Patrick Mahomes threw for 291 yards and a touchdown, and the Kansas City defense kept Lamar Jackson and the Ravens out of the end zone on three consecutive plays in the closing seconds, allowing the Chiefs to begin their pursuit of a third straight Super Bowl title with a 27-20 victory over Baltimore on Thursday night.

The game ended with a video review after Jackson appeared to connect with Isaiah Likely in the back of the end zone with no time remaining for a touchdown. The video clearly showed Likely’s toe landing on the endline, though, and the call was overturned, sending the Chiefs streaming off the bench in celebration.

• No 2 seed beats American 6-3, 7-6(2) in women’s semi-final in New York
• Jessica Pegula takes on Karolína Muchová for spot in singles decider

Aryna Sabalenka has reached her second consecutive US Open women’s singles final by beating Emma Navarro 6-3, 7-6 (2) with her usual brand of high-risk, high-reward tennis.

The No 2 seed came up a victory short of claiming the championship a year ago when losing to Coco Gauff in front of a partisan crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium, but refused to let another American opponent get too comfortable in this semi-final.

Briton hopes to extend his New York run beyond semi-finals against an opponent he recalls facing at junior level

Jack Draper has taken inspiration from Emma Raducanu’s US Open ­triumph three years ago as he looks to continue his own spectacular breakthrough run in New York before his tough semi-final against Jannik Sinner, the world No 1, on Friday.

“What Emma did was obviously incredibly inspiring,” said Draper, who is a year older than Raducanu. “I’ve known her from a young age and to see what she did was incredible. I was very proud of her, very excited, watching it thinking, obviously we’ve watched the likes of Andy Murray winning a grand slam from Great Britain, but her winning, it was just really a fairytale run. I definitely think as a competitor, it fuelled my fire. I really wanted to achieve what she’d done, winning a grand slam.”

• American wins medal just 16 months after losing a leg
• Becky Redfern and Alice Tai win golds for Great Britain

Even in the story-laden world of the Paralympics, where things are never monochrome, it is hard to trump getting your leg bitten off by a shark one year, and swimming for medals in Paris the next.

Yet that is the true tale behind the success of Ali Truwit, 24-year-old ex-Yale competitive swimmer, and silver medallist in the La Défense Arena in the S10 400m freestyle on Thursday night, who in 2023 fought off a shark in the waters of Turks and Caicos in the Atlantic Ocean, and saved her own life by racing 70 metres to a boat, her left foot somewhere behind.

Coach on the road to winning Olympic gold with the US, why her final months at Chelsea were so tough and immersing herself in politics

“Was there a moment that I knew we were going to win gold? Probably the toe save,” says Emma Hayes, after a pause to think. “After the toe save I was like: ‘Oh, your name’s on it. Your name’s on it.’”

That “toe save” came in the 119th minute of the United States’ Olympic semi-final against Germany, the goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher leaping and flicking away Laura Freigang’s point-blank header to preserve their lead . Four days later, Mallory Swanson’s 57th-minute strike earned the US gold against Brazil, a staggering 72 days after Hayes oversaw her first practice.

• Rael Enteen also called fans ‘mouth breathers’
• Comments were published on social media

The Washington Commanders have fired an employee after he was shown making derogatory comments about players and fans in undercover video posted on social media.

A team spokesperson said on Thursday that vice president of content Rael Enteen is no longer with the team. Enteen was initially suspended after he said on video posted by O’Keefe Media Group that some players were “dumb as hell” and homophobic, and called fans “high school-educated alcoholics” and “mouth breathers.”

The team said on Wednesday after the post came to light that “the language used in the video runs counter to our values at the Commanders organization.”

James O’Keefe, who founded the company last year, told the Associated Press on Wednesday the videos were taken during two dates in June in Washington. O’Keefe said Enteen and the woman who filmed the interactions met on a dating app.

• Club becomes most valuable in women’s sports history
• Sale more than doubles previous NWSL record

The most expensive takeover in the history of women’s professional sports has been completed after the NWSL formally ratified the $250m purchase of a controlling stake in Angel City FC to Bob Iger and Willow Bay .

Iger, the chief executive of Walt Disney, and television journalist Bay are also injecting an additional $50m into the club, which was only founded in 2020 by a group including the Hollywood actor Natalie Portman and venture capitalists Kara Nortman and Alexis Ohanian.

Tennis is still the main attraction at the US Open. But it has become a more of a background feature at a monument to conspicuous consumption and wealth

The latest harbinger of doom at the US Open isn’t a bad call or a broken superstition. It’s tennis balls the size of a pumpkin.

As the action on court winds towards the finish, hordes of children can be observed overwhelming ushers to take up position in the front row with these giant balls, a pen and the expectation of a signature. For a player on the brink of defeat, these cherubic autograph seekers aren’t just a sign that their tournament has come to an end. The autograph hoarders, as well as the cocktail fiends and commemorative towel collectors, reveal the extent to which the hunger for personal moments and mementoes has overshadowed the appetite for actual tennis.